Pavel Puts in Afternoon Work for Breeders' Cup Classic

Santa Anita Park offers horses of a certain class level the opportunity to participate in a special afternoon workout session ahead of big races, and no trainer has taken the track up on the offer more than Doug O'Neill.

O'Neill did it with I'll Have Another  and Nyquist , and he even carried the practice over to Belmont Park with Blended Citizen ahead of the 2018 Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G1). Ahead of the next big race, the Nov. 3 Breeders' Cup Classic (G1), O'Neill sent Reddam Racing's Pavel out to the Santa Anita main track Oct. 26, about a half-hour before the first race, to put in his final prep for the 1 1/4-mile test at Churchill Downs.

"I think you get the closest thing you can to a racing setting—you're holding off their breakfast, you're getting them ready when everyone else is settled, and it's a good, big-race tuneup type of thing," O'Neill said after he watched Pavel work seven furlongs in 1:26 2/5 under jockey Mario Gutierrez. "But you have to have a special horse to get the OK."

O'Neill was happy with the drill from the 4-year-old Creative Cause  colt, who ran the best race of his career at Churchill in the June 16 Stephen Foster Handicap (G1), a race he won by 3 3/4 lengths. Pavel did get rather hot and sweaty before the work, but that was not a concern for his trainer.

DAUGHERTY: Pavel Surges to Stephen Foster Victory

"He always gets hot like that. It used to freak us out, and then we realized that's just him," O'Neill said. "I started schooling him and doing all this stuff, thinking maybe it was an anxiety thing, but he's just a sweater.

"I thought he worked really well, though. He galloped good going into it, put in a good, solid three-quarters, and then I got him in :11 3/5 the last eighth, so that's pretty special."

Earlier Friday, during the regular morning training hours at Santa Anita, O'Neill worked the rest of his Breeders' Cup horses—B Squared (Sprint, four furlongs from the gate in :47 3/5), Mopotism (Distaff, seven furlongs in 1:26 1/5), and Splashy Kisses (Juvenile Fillies, six furlongs in 1:15 1/5). He was particularly struck by Mopotism's drill, which was also conducted by Gutierrez.

"Mopotism did something very similar to (Pavel) today," the trainer said of the grade 2 winner, who has earned $689,745 from 20 starts and finished third in the June 16 Fleur de Lis Handicap (G2) two starts back at Churchill. "She's ready to run a big race. She's ready to roll."